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A superhero PBM game (not exactly)

I run a couple of post by mail sims that are set in superheroic Marvel Universe "what if" settings. Let me preface this that while a lot of people use the word "game" when describing them, there's no dice rolling, there's no combat rounds and writing is more free-form and collaborative. We're also Rated R, so if you're underage and we catch you, you're gone.

Also, unlike a lot of other environments, this environment doesn't allow you to pick your powers and you start as a normal person who develops them. Unlike normal RPG environments where you pick powers and make a life-support framework for them and call it a "character", in this environment you go at it from the other direction and create a person, without powers, in the genre of the sims.

Our two offerings are as follows:
AND aka Awakening: New Dawn

Synopsis: Awakening New Dawn is the third world that the eldest writers on the sim have experiences and been through, all part of the story arcs. The first world was destroyed by a reality altering event and a whole new universe was created that they had the governing hand in its formation. Eventually that more utopian universe collapsed and returned them to one that's more realistic and gritty but it brought with it a sort of taint that affected people that had been in 'Second-World' who may or may not remember. See our opening page:

The year is 2009 and this sim is based on a Marvel Elseworld, similar to the current Marvel movies, Spiderman, Ironman and the Hulk have only been around a few years. Thor came, and went and hasn't been back yet, the Xmen have been around since the 60's but they're relatively obscure and Captain America is a legend.

The world is our world, Barack Obama is president, we're involved in two wars overseas and the world economy is beginning to tank while the governments of various countries scramble and incriminate one another.

S.W.O.R.D. (Sentient World Observation and Response Department), the Men in Black, are attempting to recruit Ironman and put together the Avenger Initiative. But so far, they don't have the right mix of heroes to make it work. But unlike SHIELD from the movies, a mostly-benign agency, S.W.O.R.D. is not. They use strong-arm tactics, dictate and use their awesome resources to leverage whom they want to serve. Its whispered, amongst those mutants that stay below their radar, that if they catch you, you disappear never to be seen or heard from again.

Our story starts on August 1, 2009 when a dozen people woke up across the world all having had the same, weird, dream. In that dream they all knew each other, worked and fought, belonged to a massive dimension and time spanning organization called SHIELD that employed the top 1% of metahumans, supernaturals and even aliens to protect and serve the Earth and its allies. Some of them were heroes, some were instructors and some were special incorporeal companion entities that were bonded to their special companions.

The truth is, that they were.

But that timeline ended when a powerful extra-dimensional enemy used a contagious and persistent attack that systematically wiped out the structure of SHIELD, and the world, unmaking the timeline those people existed in. One of their number, the Manitou used his awesome spiritual powers to save their essences and placed them in a new reality, a new thread of existence.

But in so doing, they brought with them a palpable 'otherness', a sense that something about them wasn't quite right. And this nature wasn't just limited to them but seemed to scatter across the world, affecting individuals with power as yet unrealized, that in no way seemed to be related. This has brought with it an element of ostracism from their communities and attracted unwanted attention from various agencies.

Join us in the race against time as the lines are formed up in a fight to remain free and for those that remember, to teach others how to be their own heroes.

Synopsis: In Orphans it's a sort of mirror universe of the modern Marvel setup except the Avengers aren't heroes at all. They're ruthless thugs controlling the government and SHIELD who have wiped out many of the rebellious "heroes" of earth. The PC's are the children of those heroes, placed in hiding to preserve them against Tony Stark and his Avengers to hopefully survive and if inclined and able, to take up the fight when their time comes.

Our main page is here:
The setting in our world, the year is 2009 and this is an Elsewhere of the Marvel Universe. In this version, the Avengers and their franchises (Defenders, etc) are sort of the bad guys. They're the ruling force behind the government, spinning their popularity and making themselves look good using PR agencies all the while controlling SHIELD and by proxy, the government of the US.

But some people know the truth and aren't playing by their rules.

The Xmen and their franchises (Exiles, Xforce, etc) operate in secret (much as always) though engaging in terrorism, espionage and some mercenary work to fund themselves as they fight against the Avengers and their mountain of power.

In the spirit of the Runaway's Title, the characters of our story are the children of villains and heroes in this Elseworld that are by the nature of their setting forced together before they become aware of their heritage and choose how they wish to relate to it. These otherwise normal kids are all stuck in a corporate-run orphanage and boarding school where they are clothed, housed, fed and taught. They are young people, between 10 and 16 years old and at the start of their individual stories, they are 'normal kids' who have known each other almost all of their lives, living at the Orphanage. That is, until they start becoming aware that they're aren't... quite... 'normal' kids.

In this sim, the writers create their kids and choose the parents from the existing Marvel rosters of villains and heroes. They have been placed in the orphanage to protect them from the reprisals of their parent's operations and as such live in complete ignorance of their true status. Likewise, some of their parents are ignorant that they even exist while others know but have agreed to leave them there, alone, to keep them safe.